By Rich Robinson
Well, Michigan, we did it again. A new report from the Brennan Center, Justice at Stake and the National Institute for Money in State Politics reveals that the 2014 Michigan Supreme Court election campaign was the most expensive and least transparent in the nation. This is the th...

By Todd Spangler
Washington group says Schuette-supporting Michigan Advocacy Trust skirted law, files complaint with IRS
WASHINGTON -- A national watchdog group is calling for an investigation into a tax-exempt Michigan political organization, saying it has spent millions on TV ads featuring M...

By Detroit Free Press Editorial Board
Who sets Lansing's agenda? Gov. Rick Snyder is term-limited, and that means power is shifting to the Michigan Legislature, where the GOP holds a solid majority in both chambers -- and thus to House Speaker Kevin Cotter and Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekho...

By Brian Dickerson, Detroit Free Press columnist
The founder of 5-Hour Energy must be the most generous recluse in Michigan.
Gov. Rick Snyder, whose re-election effort got a $10-million boost from a national group to which Manoj Bhargava's companies gave $2.5 million last year, says he met the...

By Frank J. Kelley and Mark Totten, Detroit Free Press guest writers
To a degree never seen before, lobbyists have gained a foothold among some of the nation's state attorneys general, who are supposed to serve as the "people's lawyer."
Armed with campaign contributions, access to lavish dinne...

Michigan has much room to improve transparency in how lobbyists interact with lawmakers.
As LSJ's Justin Hinkley noted in a report on lobbying in Michigan, lobbyists documented more than $35 million in spending in 2013 and may be on pace to spend slightly more this year.
Yet, while the largest...

This opinion essay first appeared in the Detroit Free Press
By Rich Robinson
It was a refreshing moment of candor when Gov. Rick Snyder recently told a Grand Rapids audience that his NERD Fund (New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify) was "a mistake we made early on." The governor said that he ha...

By Nolan Finley
For the first time in 16 years, the state Supreme Court races on Michigan's fall ballot may be lightly battled, low-key affairs.
After a string of bitterly contested and hugely expensive court campaigns, Republicans and Democrats are calling a truce this go-round.
The two pa...

By Brian Dickerson
Deputy Editorial Page Editor, Detroit Free Press
The same five conservative Supreme Court justices who opened the floodgates to unlimited independent spending four years ago further loosened the reins on the nation's wealthiest political donors Wednesday, ruling that they can ...

By Paul Egan
Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Gov. Rick Snyder's now inactive NERD Fund got most of the attention because its donors were kept a secret, but Snyder also controls a lesser-known federal nonprofit -- the Governor's Club -- which has quietly raised about $832,000 and spe...

By Jocelyn Benson
Right now, less than half of our eligible citizens vote regularly and corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections. It's hard to imagine how a new law that allows wealthy individuals to give more money to politicians and protects anonymously funde...

By Stephen Henderson
Detroit Free Press Editorial Page Editor
It's the rare politician who says what he means and does what he says. So only the uninitiated are shocked when a public official takes naturally to equivocation or tortured semantic gymnastics to go back on promises made.
Still, G...

By Rich Robinson
The news release last week announcing that Governor Snyder had signed Senate Bill 661 - the bill to "modernize" campaign finances - trumpeted the claim that the new amendment to the Michigan Campaign Finance Act would yield "unprecedented transparency." That is a fiction worthy o...

By the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board
That grunting and straining you hear is the sound of Gov. Rick Snyder's struggle to reconcile campaign finance legislation recently adopted by state lawmakers with a pledge he made as a candidate to help voters learn who's spending how much to influence M...

Every once in a great while, someone in the political class has an idea that makes so much sense you know it is doomed.
Such was the case with a recent suggestion by Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, who proposed requiring public disclosure of most third-party campaign spending. While that sounds ...

By Rich Robinson
This week brings a defining moment for the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder. We'll see whether he will govern in accordance with the platform of ethics in government on which he ran as a candidate.
The question comes in the form of Senate Bill 661, which was passed by the Le...

The Michigan Legislature has embarked on a perilous course: Lawmakers are in pursuit of liberalized campaign finance laws that would double contribution limits and would protect anonymous donors to so-called "issue" campaigns.
That latter ought to particularly enrage Michiganders. These issue cam...

By the Holland Sentinel Editorial Board
Even as we sat in our office last Thursday writing a piece complimenting Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson on her decision to implement rules requiring the people who fund so-called "issue ads" to identify themselves, politicians in Lansing were alre...

By the Port Huron Times Herald Editorial Board
So imagine it's a week before an election, and this ad runs on the radio: "Randy Richardville wants to raise your taxes, cut your Social Security and euthanize your pets. It's time to tell Sen. Richardville to keep his claws off of our dogs and cats....

Bt George Weeks, syndicated columnist
Last week, President Barack Obama fessed up that he "fumbled the rollout" of ObamaCare. Michigan's government lacks such candor about failure to roll out transparency on campaign finance.
In a phone chat last week with chief watchdog of the nonpartisan Mic...

By the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board
If you've wondering who's bankrolling your elected representatives in Lansing and what they expect in return for their money, Republicans state lawmakers want you to understand one thing:
It's none of your damned business.
That's the implicit messag...

By Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press
LANSING -- Secretary of State Ruth Johnson's announcement today that she will require public disclosure of who pays for political "issue ads" had barely circulated through the Capitol when the GOP-controlled Senate moved to nullify her initiative.
Johnson, a Re...

By Gary Heinlein, The Detroit News
Lansing -- Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said Thursday she intends to expand Michigan campaign disclosure rules to include "issue" ads, but the state Senate promptly passed a bill that would slam the door on her proposal.
A last-minute amendment was added t...

By Ruth Johnson, Michigan Secretary of State
We have all seen them - political ads that capture our attention and try to persuade us about the worthiness or unworthiness of a candidate or proposal without actually using the words "vote for" or "elect" or "say no to."
Sometimes they urge us to ...

By Brian Dickerson, Detroit Free Press
Some Michiganders worry that their elected officials are for sale to the highest bidder.
State Sen. Arlan Meekhof just wants to be sure the would-be buyers are paying a fair price.
Meekhof, a first-term senator whose West Olive district boasts the high...

You've been sued -- and it's looking like the judge randomly assigned to your case might be convinced the aggrieved plaintiff has a legitimate beef.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could move the problematic lawsuit to a friendlier courtroom -- one where a judge, handpicked by some of your best friend...

By James Derian
During Michigan's 2012 elections, "independent" groups dominated the airways with a virtual flood of candidate attack ads posing as so-called "issue ads."
Why are these ads so popular with "independent" groups? The identities of the special interests funding these ads are allow...

Lansing-- Michigan's "weak" finance disclosure rules led to the nation's highest undocumented spending on state Supreme Court races in 2012, according to a new national report.
The $18.85 million spent in the race for three seats on Michigan's high court bench and the $13.85 million of that whose...

The good news is that Gov. Rick Snyder has finally agreed to stop tapping anonymous donors to pay for government personnel and initiatives he was unable or unwilling to fund with taxpayer dollars.
The New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify Fund, which collected more than $1.6 million on Snyder's be...

By Brian Dickerson
Assistant Editorial Page Editor
Alarmed at the millions of dollars that anonymous donors have spent to sway judicial elections across the state, the Michigan Bar asked Secretary of State Ruth Johnson on Wednesday to reverse a 2004 decision that exempts most judicial campaign s...

By Brian Dickerson
This much is clear: If Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Henry Saad had publicly endorsed Mitt Romney or Pete Hoekstra in 2012, he'd be in deep doo-doo with the state's Judicial Tenure Commission.
The Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct -- a list of ethical dos and don'ts that g...

By Brian Dickerson
Suppose you're the CEO of a large business. One day, an anonymous tipster mails you bank records suggesting that one of your key subordinates, an employee responsible for millions of dollars in corporate purchasing decisions, has been making substantial personal deposits that c...

By George Weeks
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." --The Wizard of Oz
As activities escalate toward Michigan's 2014 elections, there's a timely lesson to be learned from a watchdog's startling report on record spending and the continuing trend of diminishing accountability in 2...

By Rich Robinson
Michigan had the most expensive state Supreme Court election campaign in the nation in 2012: $18.6 million. The spending was a record in a Michigan Supreme Court election, and a record for lack of accountability.
Just $4.7 million, barely 25 percent, was reported to the state ...

By Brian Dickerson, Free Press Deputy Editorial Page Editor
Justice Diane Hathaway hasn't reached the halfway mark in her first term on the state's highest court, but it's unlikely she'll be there much longer.
Until this year, Hathaway was known chiefly for knocking off incumbent Chief Justice...

Michigan earned national election notoriety in 2012. Our Supreme Court campaign appears to have been the most expensive, least accountable judicial election campaign in America.
The candidates' campaign committees raised $3.2 million that was reported to the Michigan Bureau of Elections. The poli...

However close the final tally, Michiganders are likely to know within hours after the polls close who won the presidency. But they may never find out who won the contest for control of the Michigan Supreme Court.
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network, which monitors political spending in our stat...

Once again, Michigan's lax campaign finance disclosure laws are allowing someone or some group to mount attack ads against judges without having to identify themselves. And in a separate issue, state Democrats are floating untrue attack ads against conservative incumbents seeking re-election to the ...

As one of the busiest campaign seasons in memory enters its last three weeks, the major flaws in Michigan's political framework are becoming more obvious and of greater and greater concern.
Just ask East Bay Township resident Raoul "Buck" Montgomery. He said he found it "humorous" when political ...

Michigan legislators could have forced all state ballots to ask whether voters were, in fact, citizens, if they overrode Gov. Rick Snyder's veto this summer. They did not. Even so, Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson has taken it upon herself to go beyond the apparent will of the governor and l...

Michigan Democrats and Republicans met in state conventions last weekend to nominate their candidates for the "non-partisan" Michigan Supreme Court. We suspect the delegates didn't spend a lot of time rating potential justices on the basis of their objective judicial demeanor, the depth of their leg...

By The Detroit News,
Rather than cause additional befuddlement in a heavily attended presidential election, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson should drop her citizenship question from the forms voters are handed when they go to the polls Nov. 6. It's small but superfluous red tape that, misapplied,...

A Port Huron Times Herald editorial
It might have meant more had Michigan's Aug. 7 primary election defied tradition and actually drawn a large voter turnout. Secretary of State Ruth Johnson's meddling in the electoral process still was a minor disaster.
Despite good reasons for not doing it, ...

By Rich Robinson
Detroit Free Press guest writer
A funny thing happened to me when I went to vote in our Aug. 7 primary election. The ballot application form I was given included a question asking whether or not I was a citizen of the United States.
I'm guessing that almost anyone who rea...

An unnecessary amount of confusion was caused in this week's primary election because Secretary of State Ruth Johnson opted to add a question about citizenship to the ballot application voters fill out at the polls. Legislation making this question a requirement was vetoed by Gov. Rick Snyder last m...

By Kathleen Gray
Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a bill last month that would require voters to declare their U.S. citizenship in writing before being allowed to vote.
But the question remained on ballot applications across the state Tuesday, and some voters weren't allowed to vote when they refused t...

The U.S. Court of Appeals has sustained Michigan's limits on contributions to state legislative candidates' campaign committees. The move upholds the state's right to set its own campaign rules, but the limits are very low and rather pointless -- they can be circumvented.
The ruling stems from a ...

By Paul Egan
Detroit Free Press Lansing bureau
LANSING -- Sen. Roger Kahn raised nearly $177,000 for his campaign committee in 2011, more than any other Michigan senator.
Unlike most of his colleagues, Kahn, a Republican, has no campaign looming in his Saginaw area district.
Kahn, the infl...

By Marilyn Kelly and James L. Ryan
Since the turn of the century, Michigan has gained a reputation for Supreme Court election campaigns that are among the most expensive, least transparent and most partisan in the country. Our campaign ads have been among the most offensive. That is why we conven...

By George Weeks
Michigan has no greater current blot on state government than anonymous campaign contributions that give big money interests too much influence with too little transparency in all three branches, especially of late on the Supreme Court.
It's not a problem unique to the states. ...

After years of essentially ignoring the corrosive influence of secret money on political campaigns, there are suddenly two legitimate efforts to pull back the campaign finance curtain.
Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson is working hard to sell her Secure and Fair Elections initiative, whi...

By Brian Dickerson, Detroit Free Press
State Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James Ryan are two of the most experienced jurists in Michigan. They tend to diverge on political matters -- she's a liberal Democrat, he's a conservative Republican -- but between the...

A bipartisan task force has made sweeping recommendations to reform Michigan’s judicial selection process, changes that should restore public confidence in the impartiality of the state’s top jurists.
The governor, the secretary of state and legislative leaders should take these recommendatio...

Government watchdogs rate state poorly for lack of transparency, ethics enforcement
By Chad Livengood, Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Lansing — Michigan has some of the least transparent campaign, lobbying, ethics and government accountability laws in the country, according to a new study to be...

Every citizen has a right to know when someone is spending money to influence the political process -- and any elected or appointed government official who believes otherwise needs to find work outside the public sector.
Yet this essential information -- which political donors are giving how much...

By Jennifer Dixon
It's known as Schedule B -- the secret list of donors who give $5,000 or more to tax-exempt charitable and civic organizations. Only the IRS knows who's on it.
Critics say it is the black hole of politics -- a way for politicians or their supporters to set up nonprofits that ...

By Christopher Behnan
State Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Genoa Township, said he would support more frequent campaign-finance reporting if all political candidates and organizations played by the same rules and didn't circumvent the process.
Gov. Rick Snyder listed greater government accountability, in...

Six days a week at the City Rescue Mission in Lansing, about 50 people -- many homeless and all down on their luck -- line up for a free lunch that begins at noon.
All they must do for the meal -- maybe soup and sandwich or a pasta dish with a salad bar and dessert -- is show respectful behavior ...

By Rich Robinson
Earlier this month Secretary of State Ruth Johnson and a group of Republican lawmakers announced legislative initiatives in the areas of election and campaign finance administration. I’ve been studying money in Michigan politics for more than 10 years, and I think the campaign ...

National report notes Michigan's weak disclosure rules on judicial campaign ads
The Detroit News
A new study by a set of national public interest groups notes that in the 2010 election cycle, Michigan had the nation's most expensive state Supreme Court race. And thanks to the state's weak disc...

Phil Power/Bridge Magazine
You might not think finger-pointing could make a sound of its own, but it does. High, thin and very penetrating.
And it could be heard all over Lansing after last week’s vote in the Senate Economic Development Committee sunk — at least temporarily — the much-de...

How much political power should one person and his company be allowed to purchase?
And why didn't West Michigan's senator fight against it?
Those are the questions West Michigan residents should be asking about the international trade crossing debate — except there will be no more debate abo...

BY BRIAN DICKERSON
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Poor Rick Snyder! Nearly a year after emerging from corporate obscurity to claim a resounding electoral victory last November, Michigan's earnest new governor is learning the hard way what the elegantly appointed bordello known as the Michigan L...

Quarterly reporting must be a requirement
By Mickey Hirten
Lansing State Journal Executive Editor
Anyone who has ever used the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor knows it's an inadequate international crossing. The delays are maddening; the Canadian routing is awful. Yet actions ...

Is it quid pro quo? County exec says no
By Nancy Kaffer
In 2010, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano had the largest leadership political action committee in the state.
With $432,945 in donations during the election cycle, Ficano PAC contributed money to candidates in most key Wayne County...

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson is proposing no-reason absentee voting for Michigan and a toughening of the disclosure rules for committees that finance ballot questions, both of which are overdue. Unfortunately, her list of reforms don't address other weaknesses in state election laws, especially t...

The title is benign but the contents of the just-published 95-page “Citizens Guide to Michigan Campaign Finance 2010” abound with citations “absolutely poisonous for democracy.”
After decades of covering Michigan politics, and some time as a functionary within the political system, I was ...

Billionaire Manuel Moroun, who beat out Warren Buffett to buy the Ambassador Bridge more than three decades ago, is fighting a plan championed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to build a public competitor to the busiest U.S.- Canada border crossing.
Moroun, 83, a Detroit trucking-company owner kn...

Paul Egan/ Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Lansing— Gov. Rick Snyder, who refuses to accept PAC money as a way of showing he is not beholden to special interests, has set up three new funds that can accept unlimited corporate donations.
The funds are in addition to the political action committee...

Michigan House officials are reviewing a recent constituent newsletter by state Rep. Mark Meadows to determine whether he violated House rules and campaign finance law.
Ari Adler, spokesman for Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger, said House leaders are reviewing whether Meadows, an East Lansing...

By Bert Brandenburg
These days, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is looking a lot like Congress: fractious, dysfunctional and awash in special-interest cash. The Wisconsin story has important implications for courts in the Midwest and around the country.
In June, as Wisconsin's high court consi...

To understand why the income gap separating the nation's wealthiest citizens from everyone else is growing, and why it will likely continue to do so, it's instructive to examine the dramatic changes underway in presidential campaign financing.
The U.S. Supreme Court has been steadily weakening re...

The Detroit News
A national industry organization called the Specialty Wine Retailers Association put out a study this month stating that America's alcoholic beverage wholesalers spent at least $82 million on campaign contributions and lobbying to influence legislation between 2006 and 2010. The ...

What if the remnants of the American Communist Party got a million dollars somehow, formed a phony committee called "People for Good Government," and spent that money on TV commercials that attacked the ethics of judges up for election?
If they did that in Michigan, it would be perfectly legal. V...

By GEORGE WEEKS, Syndicated Columnist
In reporting last week that 2010 campaign finance transparency hit new lows, Michigan’s top watchdog on the issue said lax enforcement brought “extreme delight of the interest groups and individuals who want to buy election outcomes without leaving finger...

We can accept the idea that limits on political spending amount to restrictions on free speech, as the Supreme court has ruled, as long as we know where the money is coming from. Alas, that’s not the case in Michigan. A report this week from the Michigan Campaign Fiancee Network found that $23 mil...

Michigan's weak campaign disclosure laws hid more than $23 million in election spending in 2010 and the problem of unreported television ad spending is growing.
As outlined in a disturbing report by the nonpartisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN), Democrats and Republicans, along with th...

If you need proof that Michigan needs both campaign-finance reform and officials who are willing to enforce the law, consider this: For two years, retired Wayne State University law professor Maurice Kelman waged a lonely battle to get the state to enforce one of its few campaign finance laws.
He...

By Chris Christoff
LANSING -- The identities of donors who gave nearly $23 million to promote candidates for governor and other statewide offices with TV ads in 2010 were kept hidden because of Michigan's weak disclosure laws, a leading campaign watchdog reported Monday.
Since 2000, $70 millio...

DETROIT (AP) — Dan Benishek, a general surgeon and self-proclaimed "citizen candidate," often said during last year's campaign that he was spurred to make a first run for federal office by out-of-control spending in Washington.
Criticism of "career politicians" became a fixture in the Crystal F...

Give the Ambassador Bridge folks this much: They're up-front about what they're doing.
A spokesman for the company says it has interests in a wide array of issues pending before Congress and the state Legislature. So bridge owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun and his family have been busy writing checks ...

LANSING -- As the push comes for the Legislature to decide whether to agree to build a public bridge across the Detroit River, 15 senators and 30 representatives have something in common on the issue.
All got money during their campaign last year from the Moroun family, owners of the Detroit Inte...

BY BRIAN DICKERSON
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Here's a little tip for avoiding a ticket the next time you're pulled over for speeding:
When told you were clocked doing 70 in a 50 m.p.h. zone, smile contritely and explain that you had no idea the speed limit was set so low, and were thus u...

"Disenfranchised" is a word ordinarily used to describe the citizens of countries like Egypt, where large numbers of people are denied any meaningful role in choosing their representatives.
But a detailed study released Thursday by the nonpartisan Center for Michigan suggests that many Michigan v...

The League of Women Voters of Michigan welcomes the creation of the Michigan Judicial Selection Task Force and applauds Justice Marilyn Kelly and Judge James Ryan for their leadership ("Judicial reform panel bad for Michigan," Jan. 6).
Some would like us to believe that nothing is wrong with the ...

Michigan needs reform to take partisanship off the bench
As the Michigan Supreme Court begins its new term under a new chief justice and with a newly appointed justice, some reflection is in order.
The past decade has seen an embarrassment of acrimony on the court. Some of the key players in t...

By The Detroit News
There's a lot to dislike about the way Michigan Supreme Court elections are conducted these days. Attack ads and secret financing are at the heart of what many Michiganians have come to see as an unsavory process that, with each new election, further erodes the decorum most of...

The news that two of the state's most respected judges are convening a task force to study Michigan's judicial selection process is a modest but indispensible first step toward reform of a broken status quo that is undermining public confidence in the courts.
Elections for the state Supreme Court...

Are political offices for sale?
That’s the logical question after reading The Chronicle’s Dec. 4 news story on the amount of money spent on campaigns for three state offices representing the Muskegon area.
The candidates for the 34th Senate and 91st and 92nd House seats and their supporter...

By Todd Spangler
You might think the $5 million spent by the main candidates in this year's race for south-central Michigan's 7th Congressional District is enough to decide who should take a two-year seat on Capitol Hill.
It pales in comparison to the $9 million spent by outside groups. In fac...

We have seen the future, and it's ugly — an unending stream of robo calls, television attack ads with no pretense of accuracy, demonization of candidates on an unprecedented scale and slime by the barrel — and without any idea of who is paying for it all.
Voters in Michigan and across the nat...

By Joyce Pines
Kalamazoo Gazette
As a member of the Kalamazoo Gazette Editorial Board, I was most struck this election season by the similarity of message delivered in person by the candidates we interviewed, regardless of party affiliation.
Outside of the candidates in the race for attorney ...

State, federal laws needed to require disclosure of financing for political campaigns and attack ads
One of the biggest stories in Tuesday's midterm election is the millions of dollars being anonymously poured into all those venomous political ads now clogging the airwaves. In the election post m...

Advocates of campaign finance reform expected the worst when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission in January. They predicted that the decision, which overturned long-established laws limiting corporate and union campaign contributions, ...

Everywhere you go in Michigan, you hear the clamor for change.
We need a fresh start, a structural realignment, a fundamental shift in the way things are done.
It’s true in business and culture. But it’s also true in state government, which has become so broken that nothing short of a majo...

Michigan Supreme Court is anything but 'nonpartisan'
By Mickey Hirten
On the ballot, elections to Michigan's Supreme Court are "nonpartisan."
Of course, they aren't.
They may be, in fact, the most political races in the state. The money from the Democratic and Republican parties, PACs an...

By Rick Haglund
Millions of dollars are being spent to elect the next governor of Michigan, much of it from anonymous donors who contribute to shadowy organizations backing the candidates.
It’s all legal, the result of porous state and federal campaign finance laws allowing individuals and b...

By Brian Dickerson
You're 8 years old, making your political debut as a candidate for student assembly, representing Mrs. McCarthy's third-grade class. Your opponent is Stanley, a classmate you've never liked much. All you really know about Stanley is that he wears cool sneakers and hands in his ...

It's looking more likely that the "left undone" label will be slapped on legislation that would give Michigan residents some insight into the financial dealings of people running for elective office. As the legislative session winds down, lawmakers are showing little interest in requiring candidates...

By LEONARD N. FLEMING
Detroit -- The race for two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court is shaping up to be a nasty, high-spending affair with battles waged over majority control, judicial records and the ideological soul of the court.
The political bomb drops have begun: Radio ads excoriating n...

The nature of state judicial elections has changed dramatically in recent years, and not for the better.
Expanding their influence-peddling efforts beyond executive offices, like president and governor, and legislative offices, like Congress and state legislatures, well-heeled special interests h...

The advent of Labor Day is a sure sign that metro Detroiters are about to come under siege from politicians trolling door-to-door for votes and special interests plying anonymous attack ads over the airwaves.
You could pull the plug and refuse to answer the door, of course. But why not exploit th...

$2.5 million 'secret' donation is cause for
some discussion
By Michael Hirten
LSJ Executive Editor
It's no surprise that News Corp. - which owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and other media properties - in June gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.
...

That's some exit wound Justice Elizabeth Weaver left in Michigan's Republican establishment when she resigned her seat Thursday after nearly 16 years on the state's highest court. Her surprise announcement threw this weekend's party nominating conventions into turmoil and raises the stakes in Novemb...

The outcome of the fall election is impossible to predict. But here’s a near certainty: A lot of money will be spent, and we will never have a full accounting of the sources of that abundant campaign cash.
The possibility for anonymous players of all political stripes to influence elections is ...

Justice is for sale in Michigan.
That's the most logical conclusion to draw from a report that ranks Michigan third among states in cash spent on TV ads from 2000-09. The total was $11 million, making judicial attack ads one of the few growth areas in the Michigan economy during that time.
If ...

By Jennifer Dixon and M.L. Elrick
Free Press Staff Writers
Michigan's campaign finance laws are designed to let voters know whose money is trying to influence them.
Yet it's virtually impossible to tell where more than $4 million -- nearly 40% -- of the money spent on TV ads during the gubern...

By Jennifer Dixon
Free Press Staff Writer
Several groups whose funding isn't regulated by the state were involved in attacking or supporting candidates during the gubernatorial primary. The Michigan Campaign Finance Network tracked TV spending by seven groups. The Free Press used public records ...

By Jennifer Dixon
Free Press Staff Writer
The groups behind some attack ads during Michigan's primary election for governor are exploiting a loophole in state law that allows them to keep their funding secret. But they could be in violation of federal tax laws, one expert said.
Traditional po...

By Ron Dzwonkowski
Free Press Columnist
I doubt one in a hundred among the throngs who lined Woodward for this weekend's Dream Cruise could name a single justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.
That's no reflection on the crowd. Apart from a flocking of lawyers and/or politicians, the same wou...

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF
Expect an expensive, nasty campaign for the Michigan Supreme Court this fall if the past decade was a preview, a new national study suggests.
Michigan ranks third among states in money spent on TV ads for supreme court candidates during 2000-...

By Jeff Cranson
Children are taught that if they cannot say anything nice about someone, they should say nothing at all.
That would be an impossible standard in politics. But it seems fair to at least ask the people saying the bad things to stand in the public square so we know who they are.
...

By Jack Lessenberry
Virtually every politician running for office likes to claim he/she is unbossed and unbought.
“Aren’t you tired of special interests and lobbyists telling you how to vote? Politicians who won’t tell you the truth?” says U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra in a new TV ad. He is ...

By Brian Dickerson
Free Press Columnist
Somebody -- maybe half a dozen somebodies, maybe 100 or more -- is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV ads designed to influence next week's gubernatorial primary. By this time next week, their airtime purchases will certainly run into the mill...

Voters should have more information about the personal finances of political candidates
The Aug. 3 primary election will be yet another in which Michigan voters have too little information about candidates whose names will appear on ballots throughout the state. We remain one of just three states...

If Michigan voters opt this fall to call the state's first constitutional convention in nearly 50 years, a top task for delegates should be to junk the way the 1963 State Constitution selects Supreme Court justices.
As the 2010 campaign shows well, there is nothing "nonpartisan" about the selecti...

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce filed a federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land this week, saying she is infringing on the First Amendment rights to free speech.
The organization continues to object to a ruling Land issued in May saying the state chamber can use its own funds ...

On his official Michigan House webpage, George Cushingberry's event two weeks ago was a celebration of the blues put on by the local elected official eager to host a party.
"I am pleased to sponsor this annual event and I'm asking residents and blues enthusiasts from all over to join me at our hi...

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY
bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com
TRAVERSE CITY — If it's true a little guy still can make a difference, Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Alan Schneider has a chance to be a real difference-maker.
Schneider finds himself firmly cast in the little guy's role in a case pendin...

Op-Ed: Court nominations get second look
By GEORGE WEEKS
Syndicated Columnist
There is no darker cloud over Michigan politics than the stealth funding of the crazy-quilt process for electing justices to the Supreme Court.
Crazy because partisan conventions put candidates on a "non-partisan...

Court finally takes up conflicts of interest
Staff
Diane Hathaway's victory over Chief Justice Cliff Taylor last November already is paying dividends in a more transparent Michigan Supreme Court.
The state's highest judicial panel, under Taylor and his court allies, had resisted efforts to rewo...

Kilpatrick owes an accounting; lawmakers owe state a tougher law
Add "scofflaw" to the many nefarious descriptors you can place after former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's name.
Kilpatrick missed a campaign finance report filing deadline in February, leaving unknown what he's doing with the ...

Knock down more barriers to information
The Michigan Freedom of Information Act, now 32 years old, needs enough tweaking to justify a close look at revisions by the Michigan Legislature.
It's always risky to let lawmakers have at something that's basically working, but the law needs fewer exce...

March 15, 2009
Rich Robinson: Can justice, cash coexist?
Lansing symposium looks at effects of campaign cash
Can two sides in a lawsuit receive equal justice - when one side has spent $3 million to elect the judge who is deciding the case?
That is the question at the heart of Caperton v....

Editorial: State high court needs conflict of interest rules
Causes for stepping aside should be clearly defined
The Detroit News
The Michigan Supreme Court Thursday began the process of creating formal rules for when justices should step aside from hearing cases. The court needs to clearly def...

Justice for sale
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to tell state and local judges whether they're required to disqualify themselves from hearing cases in which big campaign donors have a rooting interest.
In a case heard Tuesday, lawyers argued that a West Virginia Supreme Court justice who cas...

Hold elected officials to higher standards
Michigan should approve laws that toughen accountability
Michigan's Legislature should approve a series of bills that raise the expectations for conduct of elected officials.
The measures are reasonable and reflect the public's growing expectation ...

Editorial
Justice Not for Sale
The Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a case that goes to the heart of the nation’s justice system and the rule of law: the right to a fair hearing before an impartial judge, untainted by money or special interests.
The case involves a brazen — and so...

State ethics bills deserve broad support
Proposals would strengthen trust in political institutions
The Detroit News
Democratic state lawmakers are off to a good start this year in attempting to improve their ethics rules. Some parts of a package of recently introduced bills by the legislators ...

Case May Define When a Judge Must Recuse Self
W.Va. Justice Ruled for a Man Who Spent Millions to Elect Him
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 2, 2009; A01
BECKLEY, W.Va. -- Hugh Caperton was born into the coal business, but for more than a decade he has spent more ...

State can tell more on where dollars go
A Lansing State Journal editorial
Michigan long has had laws protecting the people's right to know how government spends tax dollars. The Freedom of Information Act is more than 30 years old, and the 1963 Michigan Constitution says "All financial records...

When cash, courts and politics mix
Supreme Court should order stricter rules on when judges should step out of cases
BY RON DZWONKOWSKI
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
In "The Appeal," one of last year's top-selling novels, lawyer-author John Grisham weaves the tale of a rich businessman who bankroll...

Michigan parties weigh in on Caperton v. Massey
The justices of the Michigan Supreme Court will be paying particular attention to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Caperton v. Massey as they study whether to revamp the rules in this state for judges to disqualify themselves from cases. In Michig...

LANSING -- Kalamazoo billionaire Jon Stryker bankrolled the state's biggest political action committee for the second consecutive election cycle, a watchdog group reported Wednesday.
The Coalition for Progress raised more than $4.2 million during the 2007-08 election cycle, and $3.83 million of i...

FOR the last few years, Michigan's Supreme Court has been perhaps the most disgracefully partisan in the nation. Hard-line ideological Republicans held four of the seven seats, and voted in lockstep. There were two liberal Democrats who voted against them. Only one justice, Republican Elizabeth Weav...

In taking over leadership of the Michigan Supreme Court, newly-elected Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly also inherits a duty to try to usher in a more collegial tone on the judicial body. The past several years have been marked by public and private spats among justices polarized by personal animus and p...

Campaign Finance
A victim of President-elect Obama's success
Monday, December 15, 2008; A20
WITH THE power of the fundraising tsunami that swept President-elect Barack Obama into the White House becoming ever clearer, it's time to confront a possible myth and the new reality surrounding his s...

Editorial: Expand voting opportunities in Michigan
December 15, 2008 09:00AM
WHY IT MATTERS
Voters should be given broader opportunities to exercise their right to cast their ballots.
Michigan lawmakers have long debated expanding opportunities to vote. In fact they've debated, and debated a...

Friday, November 28, 2008
Editorial
End stealth ads for state judicial elections
Disclose all contributors to 'issue ads' naming candidates
The Detroit News
Once again, because of this state's faulty political finance disclosure laws, we don't know who exactly was behind a barrage of campaign...

The $200 Campaign Finance Fix
By Fred Wertheimer
Thursday, November 13, 2008; A23
The presidential public financing system, created in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, has served the country well for most of its existence. The system became outdated and outmoded, however, as Congres...

November 13, 2008
Editorial
Tainted Justice
One lesson of the 2008 election season is the escalating threat to the integrity and independence of the justice system from big-money state judicial campaigns.
In all, 26 State Supreme Court seats in 15 states were contested. Campaign filings prio...

State House campaigns topped $15M
In last week's election, 105 of the 110 seats went to the candidates with more money than their rivals.
Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- The Michigan Campaign Finance Network says spending in the 110 state House races decided last week top...

The following is a Jackson Citizen Patriot editorial for November 4:
It might be safe to turn on your TV or open your mail again. The campaigns are over, and so is the political advertising.
If you had enough of this year's pre-election spending blitz, do not blame just the candidates. Spendin...

Panel argues that money, interest groups undermine judiciary
By Hugh Gallagher
Staff Writer
When Edward Thomas ran for the Michigan Supreme Court in 2000, he estimates that almost $20 million dollars was spent in a campaign for three court seats.
“Why would anyone spend that much money f...

Groups outspend Mich. high court candidates on ads
10/27/2008, 1:59 p.m. ET
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Outside groups have spent more than the two candidates in the hard-fought Michigan Supreme Court race, but it's not known who's putting up the mone...

Campaign-finance reform urged for Michigan Supreme Court races
by Lynn Turner | Kalamazoo Gazette
Thursday October 02, 2008, 9:10 AM
KALAMAZOO -- More than $20 million has been spent in Michigan Supreme Court races since January 2000, and in some cases it's impossible to tell where the money ...

Candidates with the most money may win the most elections. That's all the more reason the public has a right to learn who is dropping those greenbacks.
This much is no secret: The nonpartisan Michigan Campaign Finance Network has reported that a state House candidate with a campaign money edge wo...

Lobbyists need limits
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network this week shared the unhappy news that record amounts of money are being spent lobbying state government officials.
This is more proof that Michigan needs to reform its regulations for lobbying, in addition to its rules for legislativ...

TRAVERSE CITY -- Meijer Inc. will turn to the Michigan Supreme Court in an effort to fend off lawsuits from five Acme Township officials after a state appeals court rejected a similar request from the Grand Rapids-based retailer.
A three-judge panel in Grand Rapids recently declined to overturn G...

Editorial
Too Generous
Conflict-of-interest disputes often turn on arcane points of law, but that is hardly the case with the controversy over the West Virginia Supreme Court and Massey Energy.
Massey’s chief executive spent an extraordinary $3 million to help elect a state justice who then...

If television seemed thicker than usual with presidential campaign ads this summer, that's because it was.
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More than $13 million was spent on Michigan TV ads from Memorial Day to Labor Day by candidates John McCain and Barack Obama and their supporters -- a 40% increase over 2004.
...

Editorial: Reform absentee voting, robo-calls
by The Grand Rapids Press Editorial Board
Labor Day will mark the unofficial beginning of the campaign season, launching a more earnest scrutiny of candidates for offices from president to drain commissioner. Michigan voters should have every opportu...

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
AP Political Writer
12:01 AM CDT, August 25, 2008
LANSING, Mich.
Click Here!
State courts across the country are caught in a high-stakes, high-priced fight between groups trying to get a handle on large damage awards and others who are concerned consumers and wron...

Money has always been a significant player in political contests, but recently, according to area experts on the issue, the importance of large campaign war chests has been magnified.
"Typically, over this decade, money wins 95 percent of the time," said Rich Robinson, executive director of the M...

The Reform Michigan Government Now ballot proposal doesn't seek to revamp Michigan campaign finance law. That's about the only part of Michigan politics the controversial measure wouldn't transform.
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Still, the very operation of RMGN highlights an obvious reform - a change lawmakers...

By BRIAN McGILLIVARY
bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com
TRAVERSE CITY -- Meijer Inc. wants Grand Rapids-based appellate judges to quash an Acme Township official's lawsuit and protect the retailer's top officials from having to testify in the case.
Meijer filed an emergency appeal that asks the st...

RMGN proposal plays off anger at state government
The Reform Michigan Government Now ballot proposal to heavily revamp state government is nowhere near the November ballot yet. A final decision on whether it's worthwhile can't come until it does pass legal muster and voters see the exact ballot l...

Top pols rake in cash, though PACs get less
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Contributions continue to flow into pots controlled by Michigan's top politicians, even as overall political-action committee money-raising is down from two years ago, according to state campaign...

House candidates raise $8.4M
Some contribute tens of thousands from their own pockets in hopes of winning seats.
Mark Hornbeck and Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Jean Dahm, who fell short in her bid for the state House two years ago, has committed $216,000 of her own money this t...

Special-interest lobbies pour cash into judicial races
By Tim Jones
Chicago Tribune correspondent
July 28, 2008
Sixty-six percent of Americans can name at least one judge on the popular TV show "American Idol," while only 15 percent can identify John Roberts as chief justice of the Supre...

A ruling that allows more Acme Township officials to sue Meijer Inc. for alleged harassment and intimidation may help finally reveal just how high in the Meijer organization the decision to make war on Acme really went.
So far, thanks mostly to Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land's intervention, t...

By Phil Power
The Midwest Democracy Institute has taken a new poll of 400 Michiganders, and it predictably strikes a dismal note — but one that contains some surprising grounds for optimism.
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First, the grim news:
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The excitement underpinning Senator Barack Obama’s campaign rests considerably on his evocative vows to depart from self-interested politics. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama has come up short of that standard with his decision to reject public spending limitations and opt instead for unlimited private fi...

A public official who needs a legal defense fund is generally in trouble, and it usually involves money. Any mayors come to mind?
Given those circumstances, such funds ought to be subject to the same kind of disclosure requirements and use restrictions as campaign accounts. The public has a right...

By ANNE MAGOUN
Mon, Jun 16 2008
—
Michigan citizens rely on fair and impartial courts to make the ideal of "equal justice for all" a reality. Michigan citizens also see a threat to judicial impartiality posed by the influence of special interests.
The Michigan Independent Supreme Court...

TRAVERSE CITY -- Meijer Inc. convinced a state appellate judge to hide from public view documents related to Grand Traverse County's efforts to investigate the retailer's campaign finance violations.
Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Alan Schneider is challenging a May 29 order signed by state Cou...

Let the Attack Ads Roll! by Cara Parks
Your guide to the shady 527s who will be playing a major role in this year's presidential campaign.
Remember the swift boat commercials against John Kerry? Or the anti-Obama "Willie Horton" ad that ran in North Carolina during April? They were all been fun...

Geoffrey Fieger's acquittal in federal court last week -- cleared of campaign finance crimes after admitting to reimbursing friends and employees for their campaign donations --might make some people believe such practices are kosher.
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But don't count on it.
Campaign finance expe...

Campaign finance laws exist for two reasons: one, to ensure disclosure of the influence of money on the political process; and two, to soften the effects of that influence by enacting limits on contributions and other restraints.
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There is no doubt that Southfield attorney Geoffrey ...

A recent study of judicial elections in Great Lakes states dispels any doubt that a "For Sale" sign figuratively -- if not literally -- should be nailed to the Michigan Supreme Court chamber.
A report issued jointly by the nonpartisan Justice at Stake Campaign and the Midwest Democracy Network co...

Awash in money.
That's something Michigan could use right now, but not necessarily in the case it applies to -- which is lobbying to influence lawmakers and the public on major legislation under consideration in Lansing. Michiganders are witnessing what may be a new level of spending, as the majo...

In Lansing it's peanuts. Business as usual.
In the real world it reeks -- of arrogance, contempt for constituents and the process, you name it.
In March, just when it looked as though Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox was going to be called on to conduct a criminal investigation of Meijer, In...

IMAGINE a giant retail chain getting angry because the people in one small township in northern Michigan have the nerve to vote against having one of their huge "superstores" in their neighborhood. So the company sets out to sabotage democracy by paying money under the table and trying to illegally ...

What if Fieger gave to the GOP?
BY BRIAN DICKERSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
It's hard to imagine that Terri Lynn Land is rooting for Geoffrey Fieger in his legal showdown with the U.S. Department of Justice.
But Michigan's Republican secretary of state is persuasively buttressing Fieger's argu...

State elected officials who have racked up hefty legal bills need a way to pay them. That's perfectly understandable. What's not is why politicians are not required to disclose who's funding their legal defense funds. The Senate should support House legislation requiring that information be reported...

Justice for Sale
By JAMES SAMPLE
March 22, 2008; Page A24
Certain American values transcend partisan divisions. One is that money should not influence the courts. But with record sums pouring into judicial elections, the ideal of due process is giving way to a perception of pay-to-play justic...

If there was ever a time for ethics and campaign finance reform at every level of politics, this is it.
And state Sen. Michelle McManus is getting a chance to set the agenda.
Over most of the past decade lobbyists and their big-time financial backers have had their run of government. Through ...